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couple in period costume walking in the water gardens |
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The Tenison
family started developing the gardens at Knockabbey Castle in the
1730s. Today it is rare to find gardens which can trace their development
over several hundred years, including the changing period fashions.
It is fortunate that many of the gardens' early features have been
saved and this has resulted in a unique blend of garden styles. Now
the gardens retain elements of 16th, 17th and 18th century influences.
This makes the gardens at Knockabbey Castle some of the most historically
important Irish gardens seen today.
Possibly
the most important element of any great garden is that of water
and the crowning jewel of the estate's grounds are its historical,
surviving ornamental canals. Historically, the water garden can
be traced back to medieval times, when ponds were created to keep
carp for the local abbey. With major work on the development of
the gardens taking place between 1730 and 1750, two long linear
and parallel canals, running north and south, were created.
The
1730s would appear to have been a formative period in the history
of the gardens at Thomastown under the direction of Thomas Tenison.
These water features were created in a formal natural lake and involved
considerable moving of earth and landscaping to the south. These
canals correspond to many hundreds which were created in demesnes
throughout the country at the same time. Knockabbey Castle's canals
are among the only surviving canals of their type in these isles.
In
the 1860s, Myles O'Reilly was responsible for considerably altering
much of the old waterscape, but prime elements were fortunately
not eradicated. The two parallel canals were shortened in length
and in the space between, two rectangular ponds were excavated.
There was also the addition of a small lake which can be viewed
from the castle. It is Myles O'Reilly we can credit for the present
layout of much of the water landscape today.
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